The definitive guide to Italy's best wines by foremost expert Ian D'Agata, the director of the International Wine Academy of Roma The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy is a simple, user-friendly guide to the top Italian wines—packed with information on purchasing it in America, with tips for visiting wineries in Italy. In addition to a detailed glossary, vintage table, and index, D'Agata presents a series of "best of" lists: The 100 best red wines under $100 The 60 best white wines under $100 The 45 best wines at $25 or less The 25 best cult wines The 25 best wine estates and producers The 10 best debut wines This is a unique book—a truly comprehensive guide to Italian wines. D'Agata, an important wine insider, lives in Rome and is on the road six months out of the year, visiting estates and cellars throughout Italy. This book represents the summation of 25 years of tastings, travels to wineries all over the world, and interviews with vintners.

If you read wine reviews, you're already either amused or confused by the soaring language wine writers often use to describe what they're smelling and tasting. But do you always know what they mean? Have you ever sipped a complex white and sensed what's so colorfully described as a peacock's tail? Have you ever savored a full-bodied red only to detect the ripe acrid smell of a horse stall? If not, you're in for a treat, because these terms and thousands more are all here to amuse, dismay, enlighten, inspire, puzzle, and utterly shock you . Welcome to the rich linguistic universe of wine speak: a world where words and wine intersect in an uncontrolled riot of language guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours. The author, a lifelong lover of both wine and words, has compiled and organized this unique thesaurus of 36,975 wine tasting descriptors into 20 special collections extracted from 27 categories so you can locate exactly the right term or phrase to express yourself clearly or to understand others. May your path across the galaxy of wine be paved only with labels from the very best bottles on earth. Or, much more cautiously, with wines that could introduce you to angel pee, citronella, eastern European fruit soup, Godzilla, iodine, ladies' underwear, mustard gas, old running shoes, rawhide, hot tar roads, bubblegum, sweaty saddles, crushed ants, kitchen drains, or even turpentine.

A New York Times and Food & Wine Best Wine Book of 2019 Italy’s Native Wine Grape Terroirs is the definitive reference book on the myriad crus and the grand cru wine production areas of Italy’s native wine grapes. Ian D’Agata’s approach to discussing wine, both scientific and discursive, provides an easy-to-read, enjoyable guide to Italy’s best terroirs. Descriptions are enriched with geologic data, biotype and clonal information, producer anecdotes and interviews, and facts and figures compiled over fifteen years of research devoted to wine terroirs. In-depth analysis is provided for the terroirs that produce both the well-known wines (Barolo, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino) and those not as well-known (Grignolino d’Asti, Friuli Colli Orientali Picolit, Ischia). Everyday wine lovers, beginners, and professionals alike will find this new book to be the perfect complement to D’Agata’s previous award-winning Native Wine Grapes of Italy.

Tony Aspler returns with a book for anyone who has fallen under the spell of the glorious grape — and dreamed of having their very own wine cellar. Tony Aspler’s Cellar Book provides guidelines for anyone, whether their regular tipple is a $15-Australian or a $100-Bordeaux, who wants to keep a supply of wines that will age with grace and flavour and be ready to consume for a mid-week dinner or a spontaneous celebration. Tony’s suggestions for general approaches to establishing a cellar, specific bottles and even themes will help you create the perfect collection — big or small. Basic techniques for evaluating the right cellar for your needs are accompanied by sidebars of cellaring experience and advice from well-known wine celebrities. Follow Tony as he builds his own cellar in his condo, while picking up tips on how to build your own.

Mountainous terrain, volcanic soils, innumerable microclimates, and an ancient culture of winemaking influenced by Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans make Italy the most diverse country in the world of wine. This diversity is reflected in the fact that Italy grows the largest number of native wine grapes known, amounting to more than a quarter of the world’s commercial wine grape types. Ian D’Agata spent thirteen years interviewing producers, walking vineyards, studying available research, and tasting wines to create this authoritative guide to Italy’s native grapes and their wines. Writing with great enthusiasm and deep knowledge, D’Agata discusses more than five hundred different native Italian grape varieties, from Aglianico to Zibibbo. D’Agata provides details about how wine grapes are identified and classified, what clones are available, which soils are ideal, and what genetic evidence tells us about a variety’s parentage. He gives historical and anecdotal accounts of each grape variety and describes the characteristics of wines made from the grape. A regional list of varieties and a list of the best producers provide additional guidance. Comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and engaging, this book is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to know more about the vast enological treasures cultivated in Italy.

Mountainous terrain, volcanic soils, innumerable microclimates, and an ancient culture of winemaking influenced by Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans make Italy the most diverse country in the world of wine. This diversity is reflected in the fact that Italy grows the largest number of native wine grapes known, amounting to more than a quarter of the worldÕs commercial wine grape types. Ian DÕAgata spent thirteen years interviewing producers, walking vineyards, studying available research, and tasting wines to create this authoritative guide to ItalyÕs native grapes and their wines. Writing with great enthusiasm and deep knowledge, DÕAgata discusses more than five hundred different native Italian grape varieties, from Aglianico to Zibibbo. DÕAgata provides details about how wine grapes are identified and classified, what clones are available, which soils are ideal, and what genetic evidence tells us about a varietyÕs parentage. He gives historical and anecdotal accounts of each grape variety and describes the characteristics of wines made from the grape. A regional list of varieties and a list of the best producers provide additional guidance. Comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and engaging, this book is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to know more about the vast enological treasures cultivated in Italy.

The definitive guide to Italy's best wines by foremost expert Ian D'Agata, the director of the International Wine Academy of Roma The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy is a simple, user-friendly guide to the top Italian wines—packed with information on purchasing it in America, with tips for visiting wineries in Italy. In addition to a detailed glossary, vintage table, and index, D'Agata presents a series of "best of" lists: The 100 best red wines under $100 The 60 best white wines under $100 The 45 best wines at $25 or less The 25 best cult wines The 25 best wine estates and producers The 10 best debut wines This is a unique book—a truly comprehensive guide to Italian wines. D'Agata, an important wine insider, lives in Rome and is on the road six months out of the year, visiting estates and cellars throughout Italy. This book represents the summation of 25 years of tastings, travels to wineries all over the world, and interviews with vintners.